Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Football: Coronavirus

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to offer additional emergency financial support to non–professional football clubs whose competition participation has been suspended due to restrictions put in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baroness Barran: Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active.Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many non-professional clubs have benefited from. This includes the Government’s £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres; Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund which provided £210m directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic; and the £300m Sports Winter Survival Package which aims to protect the immediate futures of major spectator sports in England over the winter period.Furthermore, non-professional clubs will be able to access £4.6 billion in new lockdown grants to support businesses and protect jobs which the Chancellor announced on Tuesday 5 January. Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000.We are continuing to work with sports and physical activity providers, including non-professional football clubs, to understand what they need and how we may be able to support them.

Department for Transport

Eurostar: Government Assistance

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask Her Majesty's Government, furtherto reports about the finances of Eurostar International Ltd, what steps they are taking to support that company; what discussions they havehad with thegovernments of France and Belgiumaboutany such support; and whether any such support will be benchmarked against support given to airlines.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Government has engaged with Eurostar’s shareholders on a number of occasions in the last year. The Rail Minister has also met with Eurostar’s majority shareholder, SNCF, specifically to discuss the challenges facing the company in light of Covid-19 and the steps its shareholders are taking to address this. The Government has made available an unprecedented package of financial support to all sectors of the economy, including the international rail sector. The Government has been engaging closely with Eurostar since the outbreak of Covid-19 to monitor its ongoing impact, as well as support the company to access available support to address Eurostar’s needs, where appropriate, and will continue to do so.

Ports: Facilities

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional (1) toilet, (2) refreshment, and (3) rest, arrangements they have made for individuals, including bus passengers, in preparation for any increased traffic (a) to, and (b) from, ports in the UK.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: We have worked with Local Resilience Forums across the UK to help them prepare for the end of the Transition Period. In particular the Kent Resilience Forum have a Driver Welfare plan, which is for both freight and non-freight traffic.

Tyres: Safety Measures

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 are applicable to vehicles operated by the Ministry of Defence; and if not, (1) why not, and (2) what technical reasons there are for not including such vehicles.

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 are applicable to vehicles that were originally built to be heavy goods vehicles but have been converted to meet the test of being a living van; and if not, why not.

Earl Attlee: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the exemption for vehicles defined as historic under the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 are applicable to such vehicles if they are operated with a load at a significant proportion of their gross (1) vehicle, or (2) train, weight; and if not, why not.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The vehicles operated by the Ministry of Defence are within the scope of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Vehicles that were originally built as heavy goods vehicles but have been converted to be a living van (under the C&U regulations definition) are within the scope of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Vehicles of historical interest, as defined in the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, will be exempt from these regulations irrespective of the load. However, if such a vehicle is being used commercially, it is not exempted from these regulations, as it is important to balance the granting of any exemptions with the safety of all road users.

Department of Health and Social Care

Joint Biosecurity Centre

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) the terms of reference, (2) leadership and personnel, and (3) the outcome of deliberations, of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC); what assessment they have made of the impact on public trust in the decisions of the JBC of publishing such information; and who is responsible for appointing people tothe JBC.

Lord Bethell: The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) is the analytical arm of National Health Service Test and Trace and is not dissimilar to the many analytical divisions and directorates across Government that provide insight to support policy making within Government departments. It is an organisation run and majority staffed by civil servants, with appointments made under standard civil service recruitment policy. A description of its functions, leadership and governance is published online. The JBC is accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Its governance arrangements include a range of ministerial, technical and data boards. The JBC takes transparency seriously and since July has issued a range of publications with partners such as Public Health England, including the weekly Contain Framework Local Authority Watchlist, associated epidemiology presented to the Local Action Committee and Action Cards. As an integral part of NHS Test and Trace, information and analysis published by the JBC is issued under the NHS Test and Trace brand.

Home Care Services: Coronavirus

Lord Porter of Spalding: To ask Her Majesty's Government what data they collect on the number of(1) homecare workers, and (2) people who receive care in their own homes, who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Lord Bethell: The information is not available in the format requested.

Coronavirus: Hospitals

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each NHS Nightingale Hospital, what was the cost of (1) acquiring, building and converting the space to be used as a hospital, (2) running the hospital since its creation, and (3) keeping the hospital on standby but unused.

Lord Bethell: Estimates previously provided by NHS England and NHS Improvement to the Department indicated that the set-up cost for the Nightingale hospitals would be approximately £220 million. The following table breaks down the original estimate by each individual Nightingale Hospital:SiteSet up Costs £’000London57,411Birmingham66,408Manchester23,471Harrogate27,314Bristol14,209Exeter11,163Sunderland20,102Total220,078 Accurate estimates for per site running costs and stand-by costs are not yet available.NHS England and NHS Improvement are in the process of reviewing all spending incurred for each individual site. The forecast for total costs including set-up, running costs, stand-by costs, and costs of decommissioning across all Nightingales will reach around £532 million covering the tail end of 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Hospitals: Greater London

Lord Truscott: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan (1) to re-equip, and (2) to open, the NHS Nightingale hospital in London so that patients with COVID-19 can be admitted.

Lord Bethell: The Nightingale hospital in London is undergoing preparations to be activated if needed. It will open and treat patients in line with the advice from local clinicians.

Coronavirus: Hospitals

Lord Truscott: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatplans they have to putall of the NHS Nightingale hospitals into operation so that patients with COVID-19 can be admitted.

Lord Bethell: The Nightingale hospitals support the National Health Service in a number of different ways depending on the need of the local communities, therefore they also operate on different clinical models.Patients are currently being treated in Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Exeter, Bristol and Harrogate. With the rise in Covid-19 inpatient numbers, the remaining Nightingale hospitals are being readied to admit patients once again should they be needed.

Coronavirus: Italy

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of thearticle by Giovanni Apolone et al Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy, published in the Tumori Journal on 11 November.

Lord Bethell: Public Health England monitors the evidence on COVID-19, including articles such as that by Apolone et al.This published study uses in-house serological methods which require considerable assurance on their specificity and sensitivity, which is not provided in the paper. Therefore, there are several reservations about the laboratory methods used, which provide uncertainty about the conclusions drawn.Whilst indicative of the possibility, this article is not definitive evidence of the presence of COVID-19 virus in Italy in December and additional supportive evidence is required to achieve high confidence in this assertion.

Patients: Hearing Impairment

Baroness Sheehan: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the special needs of people with hearing loss in NHS hospitals when they are (1) acutely ill, and (2) at risk of death.

Lord Bethell: No such assessment has been made. However, all National Health Service hospitals are legally required to identify the support needs of patients with a disability, impairment or sensory loss and put in place reasonable adjustments to meet specific needs. This requirement, set out in the Accessible Information Standard, includes people with hearing loss.

Department for Work and Pensions

Low Incomes

The Lord Bishop of Durham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what key (1) economic, and (2) health, indicators?they plan to use to inform their planned?assessment of how best to support low-income families; and whether such any such assessment will include?determining whether to make the £20 uplift to Universal Credit permanent.

The Lord Bishop of Durham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the timeline for their?assessment of (1) how best to support low-income families,?and (2)?whether to make the £20 uplift to Universal Credit permanent.

Baroness Stedman-Scott: The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until April 2021. As the Government has done throughout this pandemic, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.